A spokesman for the University of Wisconsin-Madison has shrugged off concerns over one of its students selling hoodies bearing the phrase “All White People Are Racist” in capital letters.

“In this case, the individuals involved are exercising their rights to free speech and engaging in a private activity unrelated to their status as students,” campus spokesman John Lucas said in an email to The College Fix.

Asked a second time to weigh in on the matter, Lucas gave the same answer.

The hoodies are the brainchild of an entrepreneurial UW-Madison undergraduate who recently began selling sweatshirts online—in Wisconsin red—which proclaim: “All White People Are Racist.”

Technically, Loren, you are correct, and I would agree. Wonder what would happen, though, if somebody bought one of those hoodies and just scratched out the word “white?” don’t replace it with another color or anything, just remove the word “white.” Food for thought…

Somebody needs to come up with an “All Black People are Racist” hoodie. Think they’ll respond with “In this case, the individuals involved are exercising their rights to free speech and engaging in a private activity unrelated to their status as students” in that situation?

I agree that UW and its fellow institutions across the country should not censor stupid speech, but also realize that a great majority of faculty and administrators believe and likely preach the substance of that speech, so the decision not to censor here hardly qualifies UW as a Profile in Courage. Far more courageous but of course unlikely would be UW protecting the speech rights of those who question the received wisdom du jour.